C-programmering – Grundkurs

Programmers and system engineers who must maintain existing C software. For those who are new developers, it is recommended to go directly to C++ programming.

• To read and understand all kinds of C-code
• Maintain and modify/extend existing C-programs
• Develop new program modules
• What creates portability and non-portability
• How the ANSI standard library is structured
• What modern development tools are available

General knowledge of computer programming and preferably knowledge and experience of another language. The course is normally conducted in a Windows environment, which is why user knowledge of Windows makes it easier.

1. Introduction

• Characteristics of language
• History and standardization
• The use of C in different environments and for different purposes

2. Overview of C

• Basic rules of syntax
• The main function and calls to other functions
• Variables and types
• Storage classes and visibility
• The most common operators
• Parameter transfer in C - always with value transfer
• Program flow control
• Derived, self-defined types

3. The development environment

• The operating system - usually the Windows tool is processed only to the extent necessary for simple compilation of character-based applications. Debugging functions may also be tested.

4. Variables and types

• The difference between definition and declaration
• Naming rules for local and global variables
• Integer types and floating point types
• Characters, constant characters and escape sequences

5. Program flow control

• Several batches in one block
• Conditions -if and if-else, nested if-else
• Loops with for, while and do-while
• The switch statement, alternative to nested if-else statements

6. Expressions and operators

• What is operator vs operands?
• The language's groups of operators – arithmetic, logical, comparative and bitwise
• The lack of logical variable type
• Priority and associativity
• The sizeof operator
• Type checking and implicit/explicit type conversion in C

7. Features

• Function definition (prototype) vs. definition
• Structuring using functional decomposition
• Parameter transfer and return
• Visibility rules - local variables
• What actually happens during a function call?
• Recursive functions – functions that call themselves

8. The preprocessor  

• Macros – a way to define constants and small functions
• Inclusion of header files
• Conditions for the compilation

9. Vectors and pointers

• Vectors – an indexed array of variables
• Pointers are memory addresses
• The relationship between vectors and pointers, a peculiarity of C
• The ability to use vector names as pointers and pointers as vector names
• Dynamic memory allocation provides a pointer
• Strings as a special case
• Pointers to functions

10. Structures

• Ability to combine data into larger structures
• The use of pointers to structures.
• Various member data
• Unions, a way to compress data
• Structure declarations with typedef

11. Modularization

• Division into header and implementation
• The header file as interface
• Visibility rules for modularization

12. The Standard Library  

• History of standardization
• Scope and main groups of the standard library - file management, string management, memory management and math functions, etc
• The ability to use other libraries and APIs

13. Common errors

• Review of typical errors, logical and syntactic

14. Tools

• Make files, Debugger and Browsers

15. The future  

Exercises:  

• A first program in C
• Calculate circle area
• Show character representation
• Convert character representation
• Calculate type sizes
• Simple pocket calculator
• Piecewise shifting and masking
• Calculate the maximum number
• Numbers to text
• Process argument string
• Count characters in strings
• Allocate memory dynamically
• Small index with linked list
• Construct a stack
• Program for file copying